“You’re not,” Kayne assured her.“You’re protecting yourself.”His gaze softened.“And I’m protecting you too.”
Chloe exhaled shakily.For now, Danica was a nuisance.A complication.A heartbreak in designer heels.But not the villain.
God help her, she hoped she was right.
#
Kayne waited untilChloe left the office to cool down.She’d murmured something about checking on deliveries, her tone light but her eyes already gone somewhere inward.He knew the truth.She needed air before her brain knotted itself into a pretzel over her sister.Leo was with her, so she wasn’t alone, even if she felt like it.
He scrubbed a hand over his face.Danica wasn’t the villain.Probably.Hopefully.But the girl sure as hell wasn’t playing with a full deck.Between the flirting, the lies, and the sudden interest in Chloe’s private schedule, Kayne’s instincts were pacing like caged wolves.
He’d already run a background check on Danica after the first time he’d met her.She had a staggering amount of credit card debt from designer purchases, cosmetic procedures, and a lifestyle that didn’t remotely match her income.Spending meant to project success, not survive.It was luxury debt, but she made her payments on time each month.Danica had two speeding tickets but no criminal record.Nothing that raised a red flag.
He accessed his notes app to document odd behaviors, inconsistencies, and anything that didn’t sit right.It felt clinical but necessary.He hated putting Danica on any kind of list, even a soft one, because it would gut Chloe.But protecting Chloe meant following the evidence, not the hope she was clinging to.
Footsteps clicked down the hall.Anja’s stride always announced when she’d found something.And usually not something he wanted to hear.
She pushed open the office door without knocking, her pale hair pulled back, her expression sharp enough to cut steel.“Kayne,” she said.“We’ve got a problem.”
He pocketed his phone.“We already got a whole grocery cart of problems.What’s the special today?”
She didn’t smile.Not even a twitch.Not good.
Anja set a small plastic evidence bag on the desk between them.Inside lay a micro-sized lens.It was sleek, expensive, and definitely not store-bought.“Found this in an air vent on the second floor.”
Kayne’s pulse tightened.“That’s not a standard security cam.”
“No.”She crossed her arms.“It’s a pinhole model with wireless transmission capability.High-end.Whoever installed it had technical skill and a blueprint-level understanding of the building.”
He stared at the grain-of-rice-sized lens, heat crawling up his spine in a slow, deliberate burn.“Where exactly?”
“In the vent near one of the smaller offices.Perfect angle to catch the hallway and half the studio entry.”She met his eyes.“The bastard came back more than once.I checked dust patterns.The screws were removed and reinstalled at least twice.”
Cold electric fury narrowed his focus until everything else dropped away.Whoever was after Chloe wasn’t rushing.They were circling.Burrowing closer.
He forced himself to breathe.“Any prints?”
Anja snorted.“Please.Whoever did this wore gloves and wiped all surfaces with alcohol.No way to trace it, either.Amateur hour this is not.”
Kayne nodded, pacing once, twice.Then he stopped dead.“Wait.”
“What?”
“That vent is accessible from the upstairs maintenance corridor, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“And the maintenance corridor is supposed to stay locked.”
“It was locked,” Anja said.“From the inside.”
His gut sank.“Inside access only,” he muttered.“So someone with keys.”
“Or someone who stole them,” Anja said evenly.“Or someone who knows enough about vents and crawl spaces to bypass a lock entirely.”
Kayne thought of Danica behind Chloe’s desk.At the gym when she wasn’t supposed to be.Accessing Chloe’s private schedule.
No.He had to be careful.Coincidence wasn’t evidence.But damn, the timing was bad.
